Re: Master of Erotic Despair from alt.music.leonard-cohen. 2000/01/28: Michael S. Connaghan wrote: Nearly thirty years ago I purchased my first Leonard Cohen album. I had seen an ad in the National Lampoon that billed L.C. as the Master of Erotic Despair and I was intrigued. []

In Anjani Thomas, Leonard Cohen Finds a New Voice by Alan Light, New York Times, May 21, 2006: Leonard Cohen is not known for being prolific. In a recording career approaching its 40th year, this master of romantic despair has released a mere 11 studio albums. []

An Interview with Leonard Cohen by Richard Guilliatt, The Sunday Times Magazine (London), December 12, 1993: Yet here is Leonard Cohen – the poet laureate of pessimism, the world heavyweight champion of existential despair – getting cheerfully drunk in a Chinese Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. []

Derived from lyrics of “Field Commander Cohen;” Hydra – Walking in Leonard Cohen’s footsteps by grhomeboy, Homeboy Media News October 8, 2006: On a dismal rainy afternoon in April 1960, after spending three months in a boarding house on Hampstead High Street completing a manuscript, the 25-year-old “grocer of despair” found himself wandering bleakly around London’s East End, his spirits further depleted by raging toothache. []

Zen Robes Retired As Singer Turns 65 by Juan Rodriguez, The Montreal Gazette, September 18, 1999: “He once read an ad in National Lampoon titled Leonard Cohen: The Prophet of Despair. “I laughed my head off,” he told me years ago, “because I thought it was the Lampoon spoofing me. Then I saw the same ad in Rolling Stone, and I wasn’t laughing any more.” []

Zen Robes Retired As Singer Turns 65 by Juan Rodriguez, The Montreal Gazette, September 18, 1999: Yet Cohen is an acquired taste. His voice is a mournful monotone, his songs dirge-like. “Only an extremely inattentive listener would willingly follow Suzanne to her place by the river after hearing Cohen’s song,” sniped The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. While Europeans, with poetry in the blood, embrace him as a hero (and bona-fide pop star), Americans have marginalized him: “songs to slit your wrists by.” He’s been dubbed “Beautiful Creep” and “the Dr. Kevorkian of song,” “the poet of pessimism” and “bard of bedsits,” “the prince of bummers,” and “the poet laureate of commitophobes.”Leonard Cohen: Several Lifetimes Already by Pico Iyer. Shambhala Sun: The man who has been the poet laureate of commitophobes, who has never found in his 63 years a woman he can marry or a home he won’t desert []

Zen Robes Retired As Singer Turns 65 by Juan Rodriguez, The Montreal Gazette, September 18, 1999: Yet Cohen is an acquired taste. His voice is a mournful monotone, his songs dirge-like. “Only an extremely inattentive listener would willingly follow Suzanne to her place by the river after hearing Cohen’s song,” sniped The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. While Europeans, with poetry in the blood, embrace him as a hero (and bona-fide pop star), Americans have marginalized him: “songs to slit your wrists by.” He’s been dubbed “Beautiful Creep” and “the Dr. Kevorkian of song,” “the poet of pessimism” and “bard of bedsits,” “the prince of bummers,” and “the poet laureate of commitophobes.”Cohen, Leonard MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music: A gloomy poet who became the bard of bedsits. []

Zen Robes Retired As Singer Turns 65 by Juan Rodriguez, The Montreal Gazette, September 18, 1999: Yet Cohen is an acquired taste. His voice is a mournful monotone, his songs dirge-like. “Only an extremely inattentive listener would willingly follow Suzanne to her place by the river after hearing Cohen’s song,” sniped The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. While Europeans, with poetry in the blood, embrace him as a hero (and bona-fide pop star), Americans have marginalized him: “songs to slit your wrists by.” He’s been dubbed “Beautiful Creep” and “the Dr. Kevorkian of song,” “the poet of pessimism” and “bard of bedsits,” “the prince of bummers,” and “the poet laureate of commitophobes.”Exile on Main Street by Brett Grainger, Elm Street, Canada. November 2001: It’s gotten him a bit of a reputation along the way. “Prince of bummers,” “poet of pessimism,” “troubadour of travail,” “the Dr. Kevorkian of song” – journalists can’t seem to get enough of the cliché of the dark knight, the tortured soul spinning his suffering into gold. []

Zen Robes Retired As Singer Turns 65 by Juan Rodriguez, The Montreal Gazette, September 18, 1999: Yet Cohen is an acquired taste. His voice is a mournful monotone, his songs dirge-like. “Only an extremely inattentive listener would willingly follow Suzanne to her place by the river after hearing Cohen’s song,” sniped The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. While Europeans, with poetry in the blood, embrace him as a hero (and bona-fide pop star), Americans have marginalized him: “songs to slit your wrists by.” He’s been dubbed “Beautiful Creep” and “the Dr. Kevorkian of song,” “the poet of pessimism” and “bard of bedsits,” “the prince of bummers,” and “the poet laureate of commitophobes.”Reward for a Ladies’ Man by Jamie Lee, The Ottawa Citizen. December 14, 2007: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finds a place for the ‘beautiful creep’Beautiful Creep by Richard Goldstein. Village Voice, December 28, 1967: “My songs are strangely romantic,” he admits, “but so are the kids. I somehow feel that I’ve always waited for this generation.” He pulls out a letter from a young girl who wonders over his unremitting despair. He frightens her because she senses that he has achieved an understanding of life, but he is sad despite it. She prays that the comprehension he seeks will not bring her such misery. She prays for him, and for herself, that he is really blind. And she ends by calling Leonard Cohen a “beautiful creep.” Real tears form in the corners of his eyes, but modestly they do not flow. He sighs for real. “That’s what I am – a beautiful creep.” He excuses himself and you grab for the letter when he is gone. That too is real. []

We love Leonard Cohen The Independent, 20 May 2004: The most gifted songwriters of our time are paying tribute to the Godfather of Gloom this weekend. Fiona Sturges celebrates his enduring appeal. []

Zen, Lawsuits, and Poetry by Phoebe Hoban, New York Magazine, May 14, 2006: With his deadpan delivery and dark lyrics, Leonard Cohen could be called the creator of his own musical genre: song noir. Even his friend Leon Wieseltier once memorably dubbed him “the Prince of Bummers.” []

Exile on Main Street by Brett Grainger, Elm Street, Canada. November 2001: It’s gotten him a bit of a reputation along the way. “Prince of bummers,” “poet of pessimism,” “troubadour of travail,” “the Dr. Kevorkian of song” – journalists can’t seem to get enough of the cliché of the dark knight, the tortured soul spinning his suffering into gold. []

Leonard Cohen and the Death of Cool by David Sprague. Originally published in Your Flesh magazine, 1992: [Leonard Cohen speaking] I was reading the reviews of this in England, and there they were calling me Laughing Len and saying they oughta sell razor blades with this record) []

Rock’s Backpages Audio, February 1988: Laughing Lennie talks to Mat Snow about songwriting, meditation and religion, the collapse of literary culture, and the misperception of him as a Gloom Merchant []

The Fiction Of Leonard Cohen by T.F. Rigelhof, Originally published in Paragraph: Canadian Fiction Review, Volume 19, No. 4, Spring 1998, pp. 2-5: He’d never played with professional musicians and was so heavily into tranquillizers that he’d picked up the nickname Captain Mandrax. []

The Return of Leonard Cohen by Mick Brown, Sounds, July 1976: The poster outside the Colston Hall, Bristol announced the appearance that evening of “The Poet of Rock and Roll“ []

“Jikan The Useless Monk” is a self-reference Leonard Cohen uses in “The Book of Longing” poems, combining his given Dharma name of “Jikan” (Silent One) with his own descriptive phrase, “The Useless Monk” []

Cohen’s Way by Mat Snow. The Guardian, 1988. There’s a new comic touch to the poet of bedsit angst []

Rock’s Backpages Audio, February 1988: Laughing Lennie talks to Mat Snow about songwriting, meditiation [sic] and religion, the collapse of literary culture, and the misperception of him as a Gloom Merchant []

Leonard Cohen’s Nervous Breakthrough by Mark Rowland. Musician, July 1988: So I went down there [Cuba] and immediately found myself accurately described as a “Bourgeois Individualist Poet.” I said, “That’s right. Suits me to a tee.” []

Ten or More Questions I Should Have Asked Leonard Cohen by Ira B. Nadel. 2 July 1993: [Nadel: All of the following adjectives have been used to describe you; are any correct? bard of the bedsits
apocalyptic lounge lizard
durable hipster
Jeremiah of Tin Pan Alley
legendary ladies man
amiable gangster
existential comedian
poetic playboy
spin doctor for the Apocalypse
emotional imperialist
grizzled prophet
restless pilgrim
damaged priest
the Godfather of Gloom
hippie icon
patron saint of angst
the prince of bummers[Cohen] “All of them.” []

An Epic Display From Smiling Dada Of Despair by Barry Egan. Independent. June 15, 2008: Watching the Montreal mensch on stage at the Royal Kilmainham Hospital on Friday night, you could also add wise man, Zen-prophet, soothsayer, visionary, seer, bard, guru, godhead, high priest, soul-counsellor, troubadour, non-manic street preacher, chronicler of pain, Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and holy man to that list. []

Cohen fans shrug off credit crunch by Jeremy Miles. Daily Echo. Nov 12 2008: He may be dismissed by some as the Prince of Pain, a droning bed-sit troubadour who produces little more than music to slash your wrists to. But singer-songwriter, poet, novelist and one-time Buddhist monk Cohen is so much more than that. []

The Joking Troubadour of Gloom by Tim Rostron. The Telegraph. April 26, 1993: The Joking Troubadour of Gloom [Title] and The troubadour of gloom continues: “I think those descriptions of me are quite inappropriate to the gravity of the predicament that faces us all. []

The Joking Troubadour of Gloom by Tim Rostron. The Telegraph. April 26, 1993: Leonard Cohen, that master of sexy melancholy, is giving two sell-out concerts in London next month. And, he tells Tim Rostron, he is feeling fairly cheerful. []

Snapshots of Leonard Cohen by Peter Goddard. Toronto Star. February 11, 2001: When last heard from, the high priest of solitude was dividing his time between a Zen Buddhist retreat on Mount Baldy near Los Angeles and downtown L.A. itself, where – depending on whom you talk to – he may be resuming his career. []

Dear Heather Review by by Thom Jurek. AllMusic, 2004: Cohen, who turned 70 in September of 2004, offers no air of personal mortality — thank God; may this elegant Canadian bard of the holy and profane live forever. []

Death of a Ladies’ Man by Michael Fountain. Blood for Ink. January 2009: … if this is the Dark Night of the Soul come back for a visit (and yes, it stinks after three days) then this is the night (you win, Doris) for the patron saint of disappointment, Leonard Cohen []

The 10 Best Leonard Cohen Songs by James Jackson Toth. Stereogum, Oct 19, 2012: Cohen was a maverick, a risk taker of the highest order, and was never content to rest on his laurels as earnest godfather of goth. []

Green Grass, Sunshine, Wine and Leonard Cohen by Lyn Geisel. Melbourne Live. 25 January 2009: The Prince of precision, Leonard Cohen, graced the Rochford winery in the Yarra Valley …. Note: This is probably an error on the part of the blogger. “Prince of Precision” is the description Cohen has typically used in introducing Rafael Gayol, the percussionist during the Leonard Cohen World Tour. []

A Broken Offering by Tim Footman. Aeon, Nov 16, 2012: It was a potential congregation of gloom and despondency, almost a parody of Cohen as the patron saint of bedsit depressives. []

Name of a song by Leonard Cohen and of his live album released in 2001. It is also used by others, e.g., Liel Leibovitz: A Broken Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen’s Secret Chord by Alan Taylor. The Herald: June 27, 2014: He [Leonard Cohen] was a leader, Field Commander Cohen, in charge of a band called Army, singing of war and armageddon, angels and pain, love and hate. []

Hello, I Must Be Cohen by Gavin Martin. New Musical Express, January 9, 1993: Laughing Len, the king of hippy-era bedsit angst, Prince Of Darkness, has released a new record. []

Leonard Cohen, 680News. Dec 5, 2012: Canada’s high priest of poetry Leonard Cohen treated fans at the Air Canada Centre to a show … []

An Interview with John Sakamoto by Drew Dernavich. The New Yorker. June 20, 2008: … I got to sit down with Leonard Cohen. I remember someone describing him as “the coolest white man on the planet,” and I wouldn’t disagree… []

Lent with Leonard by Chris Cuthill. Cardus, April 5, 2012: As the high priest of lyrical minimalism, [Leonard Cohen] chooses his words with more circumspection than most of us take when choosing a spouse. []

Leonard Cohen Is The Cat In The Hat by DrHGuy. Heck Of A Guy. April 27, 2008: Leonard Cohen Is The Cat In The Hat [Title]. Note: I typically would not include a Cohen nickname from my own blog in this list. In this case, however, I feel it is justified because since then the “Cat In The Hat” appellation has been applied to Cohen in at least a couple of other pieces, including one for the The Sunday Times and Leonard Cohen Works For A Living “Written for The Huffington Post” and, as far as I know, my post was the first to use this alias in connection with Cohen. []

An Intimate Conversation with…Leonard Cohen by Elena Pita. Magazine, Sunday Supplement to El Mundo. September 26, 2001: Perhaps he cannot speak of optimism — this one they call the prince of anguish and the king of cool — but yes, he has gained a certain amiability in his years of practice. []

An Intimate Conversation with…Leonard Cohen by Elena Pita. Magazine, Sunday Supplement to El Mundo. September 26, 2001: Perhaps he cannot speak of optimism — this one they call the prince of anguish and the king of cool — but yes, he has gained a certain amiability in his years of practice. []

Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia by Oliver Trager. p. 227, 2004: The Mel Torme of the terminally downbeat, Leonard Cohen (born September 21, 1934, Montreal Quebec) was an underground hero during the 1960s and 1970s and is a poet and songwriter whose work should be regarded as highly as Bob Dylan’s but isn’t. []

Leonard Cohen: Several Lifetimes Already by Pico Iyer. Shambhala Sun. September 1998. “Roshi knows me for who I am,” Cohen had said, “and he doesn’t want me to be any other. ‘International Man,’ ‘Culture Man,’ he calls me … []

Leonard Cohen: Several Lifetimes Already by Pico Iyer. Shambhala Sun. September 1998. “Roshi knows me for who I am,” Cohen had said, “and he doesn’t want me to be any other. ‘International Man,’ ‘Culture Man,’ he calls me … []

Tower of Song by Gary Singh. Metroactive. November 11, 2009: For decades, critics have pilloried him with sobriquets like, “the godfather of gloom,” the “poet of pessimism” or the “architect of angst.” []

Primer: Leonard Cohen by Steven Hyden & John Semley. A.V. Club, Feb 2, 2012: Cohen rasps, “Lie beside me baby, that’s an order” on the record’s title track, shuffling into his late-game role as poet laureate of the lonely-hearted. []

Leonard Cohen: He’s Grammy’s Man by Joshua Ostroff. Spinner. January 29, 2010: Cohen, known by some as the prince of pessimism, came by his musical darkness naturally. []

An Intimate Conversation with…Leonard Cohen by Elena Pita. Magazine, Sunday Supplement to El Mundo. September 26, 2001: At 67, the poet of anguish returns to songwriting with Ten New Songs, a lovely and tranquil CD that goes on sale October 8. []

Glastonbury Gets Stuck In The Mud by Johnny Dee. The Week, Apr 30, 2008: This year’s Glastonbury Festival line-up will include a Welsh Elvis (Shakin’ Stevens), the most despised man in pop (James Blunt) and the godfather of misery (Leonard Cohen), has been greeted with a groundswell of disenchantment. []

Bob Harris’s Whispers by Bob Harris. Rock Compact Disc Magazine, June 1993: I [Leonard Cohen] was thought of as a grocer of despair, a master of melancholy, the purveyor of razor blades, the sage of suicide … []

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer. Simon and Schuster, Nov 4, 2014: Leonard Cohen had become poet laureate of those on the road. []

Bob Harris’s Whispers by Bob Harris. Rock Compact Disc Magazine, June 1993: I [Leonard Cohen] was thought of as a grocer of despair, a master of melancholy, the purveyor of razor blades, the sage of suicide … []

Songs in Key of Gray; Leonard Cohen and the Legacy of His Dark-Hued Ballads by Richard Harrington. Washington Post, October 30, 1988: He is still the eminence grise of art song, 21 years after Judy Collins’ version of “Suzanne” made him a semi-household word. [Photo Caption] []

Leonard Cohen – ‘Darkness’. Fact Magazine, January 11, 2012: Everyone’s favourite croaky poet of romantic doom, Leonard Cohen, has a new album on the way. []

Leonard Cohen bringing Old Ideas to Winnipeg by Darryl Sterdan. Winnipeg Sun. Jan 9, 2013: The Montreal-born poet laureate of Canadian folk music last visited MTS Centre in April of 2009, putting on a masterful three-hour performance of hits… []

Beautiful Creep by Richard Goldstein. Village Voice, December 28, 1967: But Leonard Cohen is a Visceral Romantic and he can hit you unawares because his emotions are recollected in anything but tranquility. []

Leonard Cohen: Gifts Of Light From The Warrior Of Love by David Whiteis. Chicago Reader, date unknown (Review of November 7, 1988 Park West, Chicago Concert): Irony flows like a bittersweet river through the poetry and music of Leonard Cohen. The self-styled patron saint of envy … []

Prophet Of The Heart by L. S. Dorman. Music Sales Corp, April 1991: Prophet Of The Heart [Book Title] []

All dressed up for `Naked’ by Howard Reich. Chicago Tribune: May 16, 2002: But Cohen’s decades-long career as poet laureate of the self-obsessed in fact has produced a stylistically varied songbook. []

A Room Not Of One’s Own by Marni Jackson. Globe And Mail, Aug. 11 2001: The maestro of moving on, of course, is Leonard “I am a Hotel” Cohen. []

Growing Old Passionately by Alan Jackson. Observer, November 22, 1992: Instead there is the lingering stereotype of Cohen the Miserablist. []

Looking For Leonard (2002) by RickMcGinnis: The Leonard in the title of Matt Bissonnette and Steven Clark’s Looking for Leonard is Leonard Cohen, patron saint of young people living in cities, waiting for something to happen. []

Love’s Hard Man by Alan Franks. The Times Magazine, October 13, 2001: The high priest of passion and pain has spent much of the last decade living the restricted life of a Zen monk. []

The Ten Best Rock’n’roll Comebacks by John Hall. The Independent, June 30, 2009: Years of depression and stage fright meant that Leonard Cohen didn’t tour for over 15 years – all but ending his role as roving poet laureate of rock’n’roll. []

Hats Off To Cohen by Vicki Anderson. Stuff.co, November 4, 2010: The Godfather of cool, Cohen is one of a kind and this was one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time. []

Irving And Leonard by Rich Baines. Leonard Cohen Files: If one wishes to understand the work and words of Leonard Cohen, … one must first investigate the passion that was handed down to the “Young Prince of Montreal” from his verse-clad forefathers of page and song. []

Notes from Tower of Song tribute album by Tom Robbins, 1995: A quill in his teeth, a solitary teardrop a-squirm in his palm, he was the young poet prince of Montreal, handsome, immaculate, searching for sturdier doors to nail his poignant verses on. []

Leonard Cohen — Haute Dog by David Goggin, Music Smarts, July 10, 2010: After steeping ourselves in his music for many days and nights, can I tell you what a pleasure it was to lunch with this maestro of murky mirth? []

Leonard Cohen by C.F. The Sheffield Star, May 15, 1976: The melancholy troubadour came to Sheffield last night with his own unique brand of depression … []

Anarchist Without A Bomb, Der Spiegel, November 3, 1969: Anarchist Without A Bomb [Title] []

Your Man Cohen, Der Spiegel, April 4, 1988: The New York Times characterized the usually clad-in-black Cohen as ‘anarchist without a bomb’ in the 1960s. It seems that a German critic was more to the point who called the singer during his previous tour a “somnambulist without an alarm clock“ … []

Solitude and Carnival by Von Gatterburg. Der Spiegel, November 17, 1997: The chief apocalyptist will take pleasure in this edition. []

Melancholy Hero by Christoph Dallach. Der Spiegel, September 29, 2008: Leonard Cohen, the legendary grouchy bard from Montreal, known for knowing what women are about, undertakes another expansive world tour after fifteen years…. []

Turks, Tours, and Triumph. Der Spiegel. May 31, 2007: Since the legendary bard from Montreal is among the reticent members of his guild, … []

Young Colin, Old Cohen by Jan Wigger, Der Spiegel, November 25, 2008: At its [a haberdashery’s] door, a photo of the late-romantic existentialist … []

An Interview with Leonard Cohen by Richard Guilliatt, The Sunday Times Magazine (London), December 12, 1993: Yet here is Leonard Cohen – the poet laureate of pessimism, the world heavyweight champion of existential despair – getting cheerfully drunk in a Chinese Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. []

Desolation Angel by Al Walentis, Reading Eagle, May 1, 1985: No one will ever confuse Cohen, the singular voice of terminal melancholia, with a movie idol like Kristofferson. []

Leonard Cohen Profiled (2010): Life Of A Ladies’ Man by Graham Reid. Elsewhere, October 25, 2010: Even the writer Pico Iyer, who knows him better than most, concedes Leonard Cohen – so melancholy he used to be referred to as “a one man Joy Division” – presents a problem. []

Never Leave Home Without Leonard Cohen by Max Kirchner. Seattlest, December 15, 2011: … Max Kirchner, who shares with us the relationship he’s had with the music and voice of Leonard Cohen, the man formerly known as the Canadian Bob Dylan, now known largely as a languidly-voiced libertine. [Editor’s Note]. []

Cohen: New Spin from an Old Ceremony by I-Huei Go. New York Observer, April 16, 2001: For more than three decades, Leonard Cohen has been … our baritone-voiced scholar of heartache and cultural decay. []

What Can Writers Learn From Songwriters: Leonard Cohen by Derek Flynn. Rant, with occasional music, May 16, 2012: He’s [Cohen’s] not the “Patron Saint of Suicides” or “Mr. Misery” or any of the other epithets that have been lazily applied to him over the years by people who haven’t taken the time to listen to him. []

Ibid. He’s [Cohen’s] not the “Patron Saint of Suicides” or “Mr. Misery” or any of the other epithets that have been lazily applied to him over the years by people who haven’t taken the time to listen to him. []

A Short Biography Of Leonard Cohen by Larry Sloman. The Future Tour Book, 1993: Songs From a Room (1969), his second album, and Songs of Love and Hate (1971 ) further reinforced Cohen’s standing as the master of mortification and the sentry of solitude. []

A Short Biography Of Leonard Cohen by Larry Sloman. The Future Tour Book, 1993: Songs From a Room (1969), his second album, and Songs of Love and Hate (1971 ) further reinforced Cohen’s standing as the master of mortification and the sentry of solitude. []

Cohen’s Demons Haunt Still by Steve Morse, Boston Globe, October 12, 2001: Bard of the depressed, maestro of the downbeat, and prophet of dark-alley dreams. These phrases jump to mind when thinking of Leonard Cohen … []

Cohen’s Demons Haunt Still by Steve Morse, Boston Globe, October 12, 2001: Bard of the depressed, maestro of the downbeat, and prophet of dark-alley dreams. These phrases jump to mind when thinking of Leonard Cohen … []

Cohen’s Demons Haunt Still by Steve Morse, Boston Globe, October 12, 2001: Bard of the depressed, maestro of the downbeat, and prophet of dark-alley dreams. These phrases jump to mind when thinking of Leonard Cohen … []

Derived from lyrics of Coming Home (Old Ideas album) by Leonard Cohen, released January 31, 2012: I love to speak with Leonard / He’s a sportsman and a shepherd / He’s a lazy bastard/ Living in a suit ... [Lyrics found at LeonardCohen.com], this phrase has been used in a number of articles and posts to refer to Cohen. For example, Leonard Cohen, Jarvis Cocker, and an Audience at London’s May Fair Hotel by Tony Hardy. Consequence of Sound, January 20, 2012: “The lazy bastard living in a suit,” to quote opening track “Going Home”, appeared dapper in dark grey with trilby pulled down over his brow, occasionally lifted to reveal a carpet of closely cropped grey hair. Also ‘He’s a Lazy Bastard Living in a Suit’ by Sarah Toa. A WineDark Sea, April 4, 2012: ‘He’s a Lazy Bastard Living in a Suit’ [Title] []

E-mail from Bob Dylan, read at first annual PEN New England Awards for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence, John F. Kennedy Library, February 26, 2012. Reported at Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen honored at JFK Library – Bob Dylan sends his regards by Harold Lepidus, Examiner, February 26, 2012: To Chuck, the Shakespeare of rock and roll, congratulations on your PEN award, that’s what too much monkey business will get ya . . . Say hello to Mr. Leonard, Kafka of the blues, … []

Referenced in text of the 1976 Leonard Cohen Tour Program, which was itself extracted from The Rock Encyclopedia (Rowolht Publications), which in turn attributed the term to Time magazine: The “black romanticist” (Time), who turned down a Canadian prize for literature … []

The high priest of minimalism by Simon Schama. The Guardian, 27 June 2008: The high priest of minimalism… From the start Leonard Cohen was out to surprise [Title] []

The Ballads Of Kilmainham Gaol by N. Kelly. Independent, Sept 1, 2012: Incredibly, the seer of Montreal‘s quartet of gigs in the grounds of IMMA at Kilmainham will be his fourth visit to this island in almost as many years … []

Leonard Cohen, Pain Free by Sheldon Teitelbaum. Los Angeles Times: April 05, 1992: Cohen has in fact staked out a surprisingly resilient stronghold as what someone once called “the Ghost of ’60s Past,” brazenly haunting the periphery of pop. []

Tortoise-Shell Hero by Biba Kopf. New Musical Express, March 2, 1985: Tortoise-Shell Hero [Title] & It is not through excessive caution that the tortoise, the Canadian poet/songwriter of out title story, got there at all. []

Born with the Gift of a Golden Voice – Leonard Cohen at the O2 World, Berlin by Sascha Krieger. Stage And Screen, July 24, 2013: The poet of human darkness has turned into an illuminator, a humble but amazingly vital old man bringing us the light. []

Leonard Cohen Is A Poet Who Is Trying To Be Free by Marci McDonald. Toronto Daily Star. April 26, 1969: By this week, when he was awarded the 1968 Governor General’s prize for poetry, Leonard Cohen had been elevated to “hipsters’ idol” – a tag strong enough to transcend geography or job, magic enough to fill a concert hall, sell a million dollars worth of records and send shivers down an adolescent spine. []

Porridge? Lozenge? Syringe? by Adrian Deevoy. Q Magazine, Nov 1991: But that’s why he is Leonard Cohen, poet of romantic despair, and we are not. []

At 71, Leonard Cohen Finds His Voice Anew by Richard Harrington. Washington Post, July 14, 2006: He appears in generous interview footage that inspires reconsideration of someone who has acquired sobering sobriquets over the decades: poet laureate of pessimism, godfather of gloom, agent of anguish, sentry of solitude, master of miserabilism, harbinger of the heart, so on and so forth. []

Leonard Cohen; He is the Man! by Rick Keene. The Rick Keene Music Scene, July 25, 2012: Gladly the monk [Leonard Cohen] – the high priest of lyrical beauty, allows people blessed with more talent to display his songs in their golden cases … []

Better than Hallelujah? by Liel Leibovitz. Tablet, Dec 21, 2010: The list got me thinking about which one of the poet laureate of Jewish theology’s songs is most befitting for inclusion in a top 100 countdown. []

The Return Of A Ladies’ Man by Judith Fitzgerald. The Globe And Mail, Sept 25, 2000: Leonard Cohen’s manager Kelley Lynch reports that Canada’s Numero Uno agent of anguish — who turned 66 last Thursday — has never felt better in his life. / At 71, Leonard Cohen Finds His Voice Anew by Richard Harrington. Washington Post, July 14, 2006: He appears in generous interview footage that inspires reconsideration of someone who has acquired sobering sobriquets over the decades: poet laureate of pessimism, godfather of gloom, agent of anguish, sentry of solitude, master of miserabilism, harbinger of the heart, so on and so forth. []

Autumn’s 10 Best Music Books by Kitty Empire, Michael Hann, Jude Rogers. The Observer, Sept 2012: Leonard Cohen, the poet laureate of the blackened heart, was nearing retirement age when … []

Hallelujah! Leonard Cohen meets Uncut by Brian D Johnson. Uncut, Dec 2009 (reprinted Nov 2012): Leonard Cohen may be the poet laureate of wine, women and song. But at 73, touring for the first time in 14 years, he now seems stoically devoted to song. []

Cohen: New Spin from an Old Ceremony by I-Huei Go. New York Observer, April 16, 2001: For more than three decades, Leonard Cohen has been our great bard of late-night melancholy. []

What Happened When Phil Spector Met Leonard Cohen? By Harvey Kubernik. The Los Angeles Phonograph, January 1978: In a year of unlikely artist/producer combinations – Reddy/Fowler, Flack/Ezrin, Grand Funk/Zappa, etc. – this is perhaps the most unlikely: Phil Spector, demon genius of the rock-and-roll production number, producing Leonard Cohen, ascetic prophet of acoustic disaffectedness. []

Leonard Cohen: Sacred Soul, Profane Flesh from Apocalypse Jukebox: The End of the World in American Popular Music by David A. Janssen, Edward J. Whitelock. Counterpoint Press, 2009: Cohen was well suited to become America’s musical prophet of the apocalypse. []

No. I’ve Never Contemplated Suicide, Says Leonard Cohen by Peter Wilmoth. The Age, May 24, 1985: … Leonard Cohen, long known as the high priest of suicide rock … []

Leonard Cohen Scores In Paris by Tim Creery. Montreal Gazette, May 14, 1970: Leonard Cohen, Canada’s poet-singer of the lovable and the livable, had young Paris at his feet. []

Leonard Cohen: Popular Problems by Ed Whitelock. Pop Matters, Sept 25, 2014: Cohen is America’s poet/prophet of the sacred and profane, and he delivers majestically on this brief but powerful album.” Pop Matters Review Of Popular Problems. []

Folk-Rock’s Poet Laureate Returns By Jeff Bradley 1988. AP story printed in Times Daily, Sept 3, 1988: But after years in the wilderness, Leonard Cohen, the mournful poet laureate of folk-rock, has a new hit album in which he laughs at his own dour image. []

Leonard Cohen, Culture Warrior? by J.L. Wall. First Things, Dec 3, 2014: In 1973, he flew to Israel to enlist in the IDF during the Yom Kippur War. Sent instead to raise troop morale with his guitar, Cohen sang for Ariel Sharon and his tank crews as “the Nightingale of the Sinai.” []

Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life by Anthony Reynolds. Music Sales Limited, Nov 30, 2010: Immediately prior to the release of his debut album, the poet laureate of the bedroom continued to test himself live… []

Leonard Cohen, Happy At Last by Mireille Silcott, Saturday Night. September 15, 2001: The Vogue is full of seafoam-green carpeting … — not the kind of place for the ambassador of melancholia. []

Leonard Cohen, Happy At Last by Mireille Silcott, Saturday Night. September 15, 2001: Hearing Leonard Cohen medicalizing his melancholia, the state so central to his work, so integral to the whole Cohen persona — the dark prince of intellectual song — was like hearing …” []

Live from New York…. by Judith Fitzgerald. Globe And Mail. Feb. 19, 2009: … the maestro of melancholic munificence will commence the second leg of his wildly successful world-wide tour tonight. []